Hi everyone :)

I'm back and I've got chapter 2 :)
Wow, I feel so loved :) So may nice reviews that all you lovely people have given me. I'm really glad you told me how you all felt 'cause I was seriously doubting whether anyone would be interested in this but you are which is great :)
Anyway, now to deal with those lovely reviews :) I'd like to thank-CamFan4Ever, malissa, aj, Moonlit Sea, monkay-pooh, Crimson-Ranger, Makia Durron and alexis for all reviewing :)

Now to get on with the reason you're all here...

Telling Tori exactly what was going on had been awkward to say the least. She had taken the whole '48 hours alone together' thing all right but upon hearing the whole 'bond with Dustin' thing, she wasn't surprised at first, until she was told that it would probably lead to a romantic relationship. That had shocked more than a little. She hadn't said much about it though. Just a few murmured words about how they'd just have to see how things turned out.

All the guys had insisted that she go straight home once they left Ninja Ops. Dustin drove them all in Tori's van and they dropped her and Cam off at her home. Cam said he wanted to tell her everything in detail and explain what things had to be done during the two days. Then, they borrowed her van so that they could load up on supplies for her and Dustin. They had spent a good two hours running around town, going into every movie and video game rental shop and supermarket they could think of. They lost track of how much they had spent on movies and video games but had limited the amount they spent on food knowing that Tori always had plenty in her apartment.

After everything they had bought was packed into Tori's van, Dustin had dropped off the other guys at their apartments. He then headed straight to Tori's apartment, where they agreed the 48 hours should be spent. Once there, he parked in the car park of the apartment block and managed to pick up all six bags of food, video games and movies. Although it was a struggle and he had a bit of trouble seeing where he was going, he managed to make it up to her apartment on the third floor without dropping anything.

"Hey." Dustin called through the door, kicking it lightly since he had both hands full. Soon, the door swung open to reveal Cam. "Oh hey Cam." Dustin greeted as he stepped inside. "You hanging around for a while?"

"No, I have to get back to Ninja Ops." Cam informed as he stepped outside. "Have a good time and remember, no leaving the apartment unless it's absolutely neccessary like in case of a fire or something. Other than that, you don't step out of this door until we come and get you this time in two days."

"Kay." Dustin nodded. "See ya dude."

"Bye." Cam said as he walked away. Dustin kicked the door shut and the 48 hours officialy began...
First Day-16:01
Forty-eight hours remain

Dustin went straight into Tori's sitting room. He found her sitting on the sofa in her pyjamas, muching on an apple and reading something that was on a sheet of paper. She appeared to be much more alert now and Dustin figured she'd finally had something to eat and drink, besides th apple she was eating at that moment. She seemed to realise he was there and raised her head to look at him. Her eyes widened and she gave a small laugh of surprise.

"Are you sure you got enough stuff?" She grinned. Dustin just grinned back at her and shrugged a little. "Here, let me give you a hand." She offered as she pushed herself to her feet and took a couple of bags from Dustin. She led him to her small kitchen and motioned for him to put the bags down on the table. They began to un-pack it all and Tori was aghast at most of the stuff he and the other guys had brought. "What's with all the breakfast and junk food? Two packets of waffles, a bottle of maple syrup, two boxes of pop tarts, a tub of powdered sugar and a box of pancake mix." She listed as she took each item out of the bag.

"I like breakfast." Dustin told her defensively.

"You're going to get totally hyped on all this sugar." Tori tutted, shaking her head slightly as she began to put things into various cuboards. Silence fell over them, the only sound coming from the rustling of the plastic bags and the opening and closing of cuboards doors.

"Hey Tori?" Dustin said suddenly. "What do you think about this 'bond' thing?" Tori stopped what she was doing and seemed to think for a minute.

"I think that...In a way, it makes sense. We've been friends since we were two so I guess if we were going to have a bond with someone, it would be with each other. On the other hand, I can't imagine being with you as more than a friend..." Tori explained, leaving the sentance hanging.

"Same here. But Sensei said that we'd find that we'd have this, like, un-deniable love for each other." Dustin told her quietly. Tori remained silent.

"I think we should just see what happens." Tori replied after a moment or two as she began to un-pack the bags again. "Just carry on as we are at the moment and see what happens." Dustin nodded and started un-paking again as well. An awkward silence hung in the air. "What's this?" Tori asked suddenly as she held up one of the movies Dustin had rented. "The Worst of Sick Magic? We don't seriously have to watch this do we?"

"Course we do! Dude, it'll be totally cool." Dustin told her enthustiastically. And with that, the ice was broken. The atmospere cleared and they were once again just childhood friends having a sleepover. They finished putting away all the food and took all the movies and video games into the sitting room. They dumped it all on her table and sat down of the sofa.

"Okay, Cam's made us a list of things that have to be done." Tori told him as she pulled the piece of paper she had been reading from the table. She handed it to him and he briefly looked over it.

"Dude! There's no time for movies or games!" Dustin cried in despair.

"It's not a list of everything, just things that have to be done. There'll be plenty of time for watching movies and stuff." Tori reassured as she began to sort through the many movies and video games.

"Ohh." Dustin hummed in realisation. He looked down the list and noted the different activities that they were required to do. Things like synchronisity tests, general knowledge about the other and practising how to feel the other's energy. "Do we have to do this straight away?"

"I don't think so." Tori answered as she studied a game box. "I think the idea is that we spread it out over the 48 hours."

"In that case, I say we start with video games. You owe me a rematch remember?" Dustin reminded as he went over to her TV and found her games console on top of her DVD player.

"You mean from last year's whole 'tournament'?" She laughed, making little air quotes wit her fingers. "Can't you just get over the fact that I'm better at racing games than you are?"

"There's nothing to get over because you're not better than me at racing games and I'm gonna prove it right now." Dustin insisted as he grabbed one of the games from the bag, took the disc out and put it inside the console. He grabbed the two controlers and crawled over to Tori. Handing her one of the controlers, he climbed up onto the sofa next to her while she flicked through the title sequence and selected the rules they wanted.

"I take it you want first selection of car?" Tori sighed as she glanced at Dustin.

"Dude, you know I always pick the same one." He tutted as he moved the selection square over to the one he wanted. Tori just selected one at random and they both hit the start buttons symoltaneously to start the game. They stared at the screen in concentration and as soon as the countdown had ended, they made both machines speed off. They were neck and neck for a while before Dustin began to pull ahead. He began to do his annoying trick of swerving into her path whenever she tried to pass him, making Tori frown at the screen and stick her tongue out slightly in concentration. "You wanna pass me, but you can't pass me! You can't pass...You passed me!" Dustin cried as Tori sped ahead of him.

"Maybe you should spend less time taunting and more time concentrating. You missed a speed boost." She told him, her eyes not moving from the screen.

Eventually, the race ended and Tori was the first to cross the finish line. This, of course, greatly annoyed Dustin and he insisted on best two out of three. Then, when he lost the next one, he insisted three out of five and so on. Once they had reached best ten out of ninteen, Tori refused to play the game anymore and suggested they play a beat-em-up instead since they were pretty evenly matched in them. Dustin ended up beating her more times than she beat him which cheered him up a lot and then they played a few team games against the computer, deciding that they could probably justify it as some sort bonding exercise if they needed to.

After they'd finished with the games, they decided it was probably best to start on the attack sequence...
17:32
Forty-six hours, twenty-nine minutes remain

"Okay, so where do we start?" Dustin asked as he began to do a few stretches to warm up. He and Tori had cleared a space in the sitting room where they would have enough room to practice.

"Why don't we just do some moves and see what comes out?" Tori suggested for lack of a better idea. Dustin gave a nod and they took up their defensive stances. Then they sprung into action, both at the same time. They began to throw synchronised punches and kicks, identicle in style. Whatever Tori did, Dustin would to at the exact same time and vise-versa. After a while, they noticed what was happening and they both stopped. "You weren't copying me were you?" Tori queried.

"Uh uh. Dustin said, panting a little. He scratched the back of his head and let out a small gush of air. "Besides, if either of us were copying, we'd have been at least a second slower than the other. From what I could tell we had perfect timing."

"Do you think it's gonna happen all the time?" Tori pondered, not really expecting Dustin to know the answer but feeling that it was a question that needed to be voiced. "'Cause if it is, then we don't need to work out a sequence. We'll just do whatever is needed at the time."

"Wanna try it again? Just to make sure?" Dustin asked. Tori nodded and, seemingly getting an idea, hurried out of the room. She came back a few minutes later with a video camera in her hands. "When'd you get that?"

"A while ago. It was a birthday present. I think we should film what we're doing so that we can see for sure if we're doing it all in perfect time." She settled the camera and adjusted the zoom so that it had a perfect shot of the whole room and they would be seen clearly. She turned it on and quickly got into position. They both stood there for a moment before resuming their thrashing the surrounding air at the same time. Once again they were in perfect time and after ten minutes, they decided that was probably enough. Tori went over to the video camera, stopped it recording and re-wound the tape inside. She sat of the sofa next to Dustin and played their movements back. As they had thought, they were doing everything in the same way at the same time. They watched in amazement as they even made identicle mistakes at the same time as each other. "Well, I guess we can cross off 'create and practice attack pattern'." Tori sighed tiredly as she grabbed the paper and a pen and struck a line through the instruction.

"What now?" Dustin inquired as he grabbed one of the bottles of water on the table, which was now against the wall, and took a few gulps from it.

"Sparring?" Tori suggested also grabbing a bottle of water.

"Sure you don't wanna take a break?" Dustin checked.

"No, I'm okay. You?" Tori replied, lifting the bottle to her lips.

"No, I'm good." Dustin told her as he lifted his bottle to his lips. They both took a simultaneous gulp of water and both alomst choaked on it. They gave each other a look before giggling a little, partly from the strangeness of it all and partly due to the embarrassment of the reason they were synchronised.

They set their bottles down on the table and stood across from each other. They took up their fighting stances and just syked each other out for a moment. They stared at each other, playful smiles spreading across their lips. Suddenly, Dustin playfuly smacked her hand so that it was jolted to the side slightly. Tori gave him a playful, indignant gasp before doing the exact same thing to him. Dustin looked at his smacked hand like she had done the most un-speakable crime in the world before quickly pouncing on her. Tori let out a surprised cry as they tumbled to the floor. Dustin pinned her down and grinned at her triumpantly. Tori just gave him a small smirk before yanking her arms free from his weak hold and tickling him. Dustin began to laugh immediately and almost fell on top of her. She managed to roll out of his way though and, stradling his waist, continued to tickle him before he could recover.

"Du...Dude!...Ha haha...get off!" Dustin managed to gasp out as his laughter continued.

"Say uncle." Tori ordered as she carried on her merciless torture.

"U...Un...Cle...Uncle!" He managed finally. Tori grinned down at him before getting off of his stomach and sitting beside him. He sat up weakly and held his stomach. "You think you're pretty clever don't you?" He muttered. Tori just gave him a side-long glance and smiled a little. Dustin frowned at her and Tori's smile faded. Suddenly, Dustin's frown turned into an evil smirk and in the blink of an eye, Dustin was on top of Tori and it was his turn to do the tickling. Tori laughed and squirmed beneath him, trying to curl away from his dancing fingers but failing. Dustin continued to tickle, but as he kept doing it, part of him noticed how much he enjoyed seeing Tori laugh. His actions slowed down and Tori eventually stopped laughing. She just lay there for several minutes as she tried to catch her breath and Dustin found himself looking at her in a different way. She looked so beautiful sprawled out underneath him like that, her cheeks slightly flushed, her hair a little tousled and her chest heaving as she caught her breath.

Tori's eyes slowly opened and she and Dustin just stared at each other for a moment. When had the other become so attractive? Neither moved nor spoke. They just stared at each other, Tori's arms now pinned at her sides by Dustin who was now leaned down closer to her. Why did he have this sudden urge to kiss her?

"Dustin?" Tori murmured suddenly. Dustin seemed to come back to reality and he immediately rolled off of her. He sat beside her and just stared at the floor. Tori sat up slowly and watched as Dustin kept his eyes stuck to the floor. A faint blush tinged his cheeks and Tori noted how cute he looked...Wait, did she just call Dustin 'cute'? "Erm...How 'bout we eat? I'm totally starved." She said quickly as she stood up and headed towards the kitchen. Dustin watched her leave and fought the urge to punch a hole in the wall. Why had he done that?! He was such an idiot! Tori was probably totally freaked out now and he'd probably ensured that the rest of the two days would be extremely uncomfortable. With a tired sigh, he hauled himself to his feet and followed Tori's path to the kitchen where he found her rooting through various cuboards. He watched from the door as she pulled things out, looked at them and then put them back again.

"Do you want something insanely sugary or something normal?" Tori asked suddenly as she crouched down in front of one cuboard and opened it.

"How did you know I was here?" Dustin gasped, seriously not expecting her to notice his presence.

"Well, for one thing, I'm a ninja." Tori pointed out with a grin. "And secondly, we've got this whole bond thing haven't we? To tell you the truth, I've been able to tell where you are roughly for the past few weeks."

"Wait! You're telling me you knew something was up? And you never said anything?!" Dustin cried.

"I just thought I'd been spending way too much time with you." Tori shrugged. She looked at him over her shoulder and gave him a small smile before turning back to the cuboard in front of her. It was kinda true. She had thought at first that it was happening because they were spending a lot of time together but then she began to wonder. She had spent a lot of time with Blake and nothing had changed, yet it had with Dustin. That's why when she was told about what Sensei had said, she wasn't too surprised After all, it certainly explained a lot. Did she like it though? She wasn't sure. She hadn't really thought about it, she hadn't had time. There was something there though. Some kind of electricity between them. She didn't know if it was because there actually was a bond or if it was because they knew there might be a bond and what that would mean to their relationship and it made them a bit wary and uncomfortable. She forced herself to abandon her thinking and concentrate on food. "So, you want something sugary then?" Tori guessed, knowing she was right.

"Erm, yeah." Dustin murmured. She'd already figured it out before she was actually told? Why hadn't he? Was he really that much of an air-head that he wasn't even aware of his own feelings? He thought back over the past few weeks to try and figure out if there had been any hints he failed to pick up on. He remembered certain times where Tori had seemed to read his thoughts, answering questions he was too embarrassed to ask out loud and trying to cheer him up when he was feeling down but no one else noticed. He remembered all those times where Tori had greeted him when he knew there was no way she could have known he'd arrived. But those had all been Tori, he couldn't remember one time where he'd done anything like that...Except for earlier that day when he knew that Tori was going to faint. Why had it only kicked in today for him when it had been happening with Tori for weeks?

"Dustin?" Tori voice interrupted his thoughts. His eyes focused on her and she smiled at him a little. "Don't worry about it. Like I said before, we'll just have to wait and see what happens." Dustin was stunned. She'd done it again! She'd known exactly what he'd been thinking! "You wanna order pizza as well? My treat." Tori offered as she pulled a few bowls from a cuboard and placed them on the table.

"In that case." Dustin grinned, glad he didn't have to pay and his troubles forgotten in an instant. He grabbed her phone from the wall and dialed the number of the local pizza place while Tori put some popcorn into the microwave and carried on gathering food from all over the room.

Thirty minutes or so later, they were both back in the living room, sitting on the floor with their backs resting against the bottom of the sofa, surrounded by food including the pizzas Dustin had ordered. Dustin had changed into his pyjamas as well since they were more comfortable and he knew he wouldn't be bothered to change later.

"Could you have ordered any more pizza?" Tori asked, amused, as she opened a can of coke.

"Hey, I just got the essentials." Dustin insisted. "Plain cheese and tomato so we can put our own toppings on it, one of those stuffed crust things for you and two pepperoni."

"Oh no, you're not gonna do that thing where you put sweet things on the pizza are you?" Tori groaned.

"Course!" Dustin told her. He got up and stepped over the ring of surrounding food. "Okay, so what are we gonna watch first? I vote for the sick magic."

"No way am I watching that while I'm eating!" Tori cried in horror. "I vote for Armageddon."

"Too bad, I didn't rent that one." Dustin smirked, knowing that she'd probably want to watch it, it was one of her favourites.

"Good, I would've hated to see you waste your money. I've already got it on DVD." Tori smirked back, looking rather smug.

"We're not watching it Tor. I don't know why you want to watch it anyway, you always start crying at the end." Dustin muttered as he looked through the bag of movies and games.

"I'll make you a deal." Tori reasoned, ignoring his comment about her crying. "Tonight, we'll watch whatever you want, but tomorrow, we have to watch what I want." Dustin looked at her for a moment before sighing and throwing his hands up in defeat.

"Fine." He agreed as he pulled out a few DVD boxes and took them over to her TV. He set everything up and grabbed the remote. He went back over to Tori and sat down next to her, grabbing the bowl of popcorn as he lowered himself. "Let the gross out begin." He grinned as he pressed the play button.

The DVD was more of a documentory type thing rather than a movie. It showed various past magic acts that either went badly wrong or were just plain gross. Tori hid behind a pillow most of the time especially when the trick involved blood or created the illusion that the magician was inflicting damage on themself. Dustin seemed to be really enjoying it though even if certain bits did gross him out. He never looked away, he just gazed at the screen with childlike amazement and sometimes gasps and exclamations of dude came from him. Once it had finished, Tori had to sit through both Ace Ventura movies for the hundreth millionth time. They were two of Dustin's favourites and he was always renting copies of them. At least she could eat without feeling queasy when she watched them though.

Half way through the third movie of the night, Dustin nudged Tori's side. She turned her attention to him and he showed her the cheese and tomato pizza he had now covered with improvised toppings. She smiled at it, not because of what he had put on it, but because of the way he'd put them on. He'd placed several yellow M&Ms to form a smiley face and used brown M&Ms for the faces hair and the eyes. Underneath, in blue M&Ms, he'd written "Hi Tori". Tori took the two eyes, put one in her own mouth and the other she held out for Dustin. Instead of just taking it with his fingers like she expected him to do, he leaned forward and gently pulled it from inbetween her fingers with his mouth, his lips gently brushing against her skin. Tori froze and Dustin quickly pulled away. He looked genuinely surprised that he had just done that. They stared at each other, both of their breathing shallowed and their heart rates increased. Tori was the first to break the eye contact and went back to watching the TV. Dustin continued to gaze at her for a moment before also turning back to the TV. Throughout the rest of the time they watched movies, every so often, they would throw the other a quick glance, a part hoping that they'd find them looking back and the other part hoping that they remained un-aware.

And there we have the end of chapter 2. Hope you all enjoyed it. As always, let me know what ya think. I love to hear from you all.

Catch ya later :)
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Wings of a Dream